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Apple is Bringing iTunes To the Windows Store (theverge.com)
Tom Warren, writing for The Verge: Apple is planning to bring its iTunes desktop app to the Windows Store. In a surprise announcement at the Build developer event today, Microsoft revealed it has been working with Apple to get iTunes listed in the Windows Store. It might not sound like an important addition, but iTunes is one of the most searched for apps that's currently missing in the Windows Store. USA Today veteran columnist, summing up the announcement, "Microsoft announces that iTunes (incl Apple Music and full support for iPhone) is coming to the Windows Store. Big get for Microsoft." Microsoft's communication head, summing up the situation, "Didn't see that one coming, did you!"
In other news, Microsoft and Apple team up to add more walls to their gardens. The combined effort will be called Mapple On Line. CDs are already in the mail.
***Application used by many Windows users to manage their music and iDevices is made available to Windows users.***
So what? It would be news if this DIDN'T happen, but as long as Apple iDevices are the de facto industry standard for music players then MS will clearly make the appropriate software available.
Now if they made Zune support available, that would be news.
Yeah.... this will be news when _Apple_ announces this. Until then this might just be Microsoft helping keep shareholders excited.
It is by my will alone my thoughts acquire motion; it is by the juice of the coffee bean that the thoughts acquire speed
The big question is whether this is truly an evil deal where Microsoft and Apple have colluded in such a way that the ONLY way to install iTunes is now through the Microsoft store.
This would be a great deal for Microsoft, getting Apple to force iPhone/iPad users running Windows 10 to sign up for the Windows store.
..which should now be called iCode (because macOS no longer has an X after it). It is not reasonable for Apple to expect smaller iOS developers to buy the kind of Mac laptops they are producing today. If Windows 10S was still the enemy, then I would be suggesting a iCloud-hosted web-based development app, but Microsoft is no longer the enemy (in fact, iCloud is partially hosted on Azure) and supporting Windows as a development platform can only sell more iPhones.
The interesting thing about this is whether or not Microsoft is going to get out of the media-selling business. You can buy movies and music for your XBox or PC through the Windows Store, but adding iTunes as a client might mean they're getting away from that...who knows? With Windows Phone pretty much cooked, maybe they're starting to figure that a large part of their Store ecosystem doesn't make sense anymore.
I wonder if the app is going to be a Universal rewrite, or if they're using that Project Centennial Win32 emulator to move the existing app to the store.
its Apple thats notorious for being anti-competitive assholes on their appstore. Doesnt seem to be a big deal for MS.
If people want to use a sub-par media player, let them -shrug-
So......is Microsoft Word available in the app store yet? Because this is just making Microsoft look bad.........
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
I heard you likes stores, so I put a store in your store so you can shop while you shop...
Are we still doing that?
iTunes was easy to see, if people ran Windows 10 S and couldn't connect their iPhone or iPad they'd get rid of Windows. But Steam Origin GoG and UPlay would be surprising to see on there.
Twinstiq, game news
iTunes, last time I looked, was the single worst piece of software I've ever seen.
It's the AOL Browser of music libraries.
I pity the fool who uses it and imagines that this is what software is like and accepts it.
Microsoft's communication head, summing up the situation, "Didn't see that one coming, did you!"
Yeah...
So as the Microsoft store struggles for relevance, it arranges to bring the most popular $0 programs to its store. Colour me completely unsurprised. This couldn't have been more unexpected if it arrived on the back of three red-robed cardinals proclaiming a Spanish inquisition.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Synergy!
Now an entirely new generation of users can find out what it's like to see an app get worse and worse with every release. iTunes is the ultimate example of how Apple has no regard its users. Using iTunes from the beginning until now has been in a word painful.
If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
All that's needed now is for Windows Store to be on iTunes and it's turtles all the way down.
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
apple wont like that
Really ?
Well I know running iTunes on my Windows desktop is what made me ditch my Apple phone and go Android, so perhaps Microsoft is banking on that...
The backup function of iTunes worked well I found, but not much else. Broken by design.
app stores with forced sand boxing / censorship need to go as well.
censorship is bad with only one app store. Why not have an adults only area of the app store. As right now you can have one that will block games like Softporn Adventure but at the same time have HBO / MAX in it that does it in 1080P.
sand boxing sucks for games with user mods / maps / and 3rd party tools. Can you have an game with it's own mapedit.exe that can work with game.exe without the sandbox getting in the way?
Windows Store apps that browse the web need to use Microsoft’s Edge engine.
Is why the app stores need to have antitrust rules as part of them.
Not a bad thing. iTune is not a well-behaved Windows application, and as much as Apple touts standards and practices in their own operating systems, they play fast and loose with Windows.
So why isn't Steam coming?
MS and Apple do a LOT of cooperation together. Sure there is a sporty rivalry, but real combat? Hardly, that opposition & side choosing is mainly media & fan created.
This is MS scratching Apple's back for what they did when announcing Boot Camp would now work only with Win 10. See? Even they joined the "Win 10 only" upgrade phenonomae that forced, (err I mean blessed) the world with the Our Way Or The Highway schpiel MS is on. Now MS can say they're helping Apple with one if its flagship products, see?
That's the big downer with the way they're running the windows store.
If they want the windows store to flourish, they need to find ways for users to get ALL of the windows applications they want, including web browsers.
Microsoft, why not have a certification programme for web browsers so that approved web browsers are able to use their own engines?
I think that'd keep users happy as well as help with increased use of the Windows Store. It may also please those that are calling "monopoly" and "antitrust" because only Microsoft browser engines are allowed (while I understand the technical reasons, I don't like the idea of limiting user choice so severely). Just a thought.
Origin is already on Windows Store, serving up their own content and not giving a cut to MS. Only thing stopping Steam is Valve's stubbornness.
Then Valve is probably just taking their slow ass.time like.they do with everything else
With the implication being "It would be inappropriate to allow a student to synchronize a personal entertainment device with a computer owned by a public school district," correct?
The appropriateness then depends on two things. The first is whether Microsoft plans to promote Windows 10 S only for K-12 or also for university, where a student is more likely to own the computer rather than leasing it from a school district. The second is whether Microsoft plans to attempt to expand Windows 10 S beyond the education market.
The difference? Windows 10 S won't let you turn that off, ever.
Of course it will: one-time payment of $50. Do you remember the "shareware" scene on the Mac, where a reduced-functionality demo of an application would circulate widely as an advertisement for the registered version? Windows 10 S can be considered a reduced-functionality demo of Windows 10 Pro.
Can you have an game with it's own mapedit.exe that can work with game.exe without the sandbox getting in the way?
Yes, provided the "mapedit" and "game" applications use either UWP file pickers or the Share contract, which Microsoft is suspiciously not calling an "intent".